Marjorie Chakravarti, 72, bought the couch in the early 90s when she was senior sister at the Abraham Ormerod Day Hospital, Todmorden where Shipman began his career as a GP.

She says she purchased it for around £10 from a colleague and kept it in a garden shed for years before deciding to sell it on eBay in a decluttering exercise.

The item was placed on eBay with a price tag of £10,000 which Mrs Chakravarti says might be ambitious but said she is 'high maintenance'.

She said she bought it to help her with diplomas she was studying for in physiology, massage and aromatherapy. Shipman, who was based in Hyde from 1977, was investigated by police in 1998 and given 15 life sentences for murder according to police his death toll could have been as high as 215 patients.

There was shock at how a seemingly outwardly respectable GP responsible for more than 3,000 patients could kill mainly elderly patients so casually.

He hanged himself in 2004 at Wakefield high security jail and his death brought to an end one of the most dramatic chapters in British criminal history.

A two year inquiry was instituted four years earlier to investigate all deaths certified by Shipman as the medical profession struggled to come to terms with how such a killer could have operated with such apparent ease.

Mrs Chakravarti, who lives in Huddersfield, said: "My husband is ill, I am down-sizing. I have three sheds filled with rubbish and my intention is to sell it.

"To buy one of these new would cost around £770 and that's without any history. It's in reasonable condition for its age, I think it dates from the 1940s or 50s." Asked who might want to buy such an item she replied: "I haven't got a clue. Perhaps someone who might want to do a diploma like me and might want a couch. I never met him, (Shipman), he was part of the group's practice at that time and Dr Michael Grieve was the senior partner.

"I was horrified at what Shipman did, that someone in a caring position could have committed such crimes. It's gob-smacking what he did." She says she also bought a black chair which Shipman would have sat on but is not releasing that until she sees how much interest there is in the couch, the sale of which she admits might attract 'the ghoulish'.

But it's not the only Shipman-related item on the auction site. Copies of victims' death certificates and witness statements can also be bought.